I heaved a sigh of relief as we closed the first term of Noey’s P1 year — intact and in good spirits! The boy doesn’t really have any holiday homework to complete, probably for the first and last time ever! (Well, unless you count the costume that we have to make out of recycled materials for Week 2. I thought I would be able to stop with the cardboard costumes this year now that Noey is in P1 but apparently not!)
So we’ve been playing really hard these past few days, squeezing in a staycation, and a big playdate with some of Noey’s new P1 friends. As I write this, Noey and his Dad should just about be coming back from an overnight trip organised by the school. It should be interesting as they will be staying at a kelong! I hope they will enjoy a good good time of father-son bonding.
I’ve finally had some time to myself and thought it would be good to take stock of where we are at in this schooling journey. Primary 1 is an adjustment year and looks to be a bit of honeymoon where academics are concerned, so my goals for Noey (and myself!) are geared towards helping him settle into the routine, distilling some responsibility and nurturing some good study habits. Here’s how we’ve fared:
- Waking up at 6am and getting to school on time
This has thus far been surprisingly smooth, probably in part due to the efforts we’ve made to get the kids to bed earlier. They are generally asleep by 9.30pm now. It still isn’t ideal and I’m still trying to engineer it such that they are asleep by 9pm but it isn’t always easy. At least it seems adequate, for now. Noey gets up fairly easily, gets dressed and then potters around a bit before we set off and he has breakfast in the car. When we leave on time and not 5 mins late, the traffic is very smooth. Noey hasn’t been late. Yet. - Eating breakfast / recessWith my skinny “I-only-eat-to-live” son, I had concerns about whether he would eat anything at all in the mornings. He isn’t able to stomach much so his breakfast is usually fruit — grapes or apples are his favourite. After the first couple of misadventures in the canteen, he decided that he’d rather bring food from home to eat so I pack him a box for recess. This is usually a sandwich, sausage roll, doughnut, chiffon cake, fish fingers, or mini sausages. (No bentos for him, sorry.) He eats because he knows that is one of the first questions I would ask him after school! Otherwise, he’d be running off to the library as soon as he can. In the last week of Term 1, he started asking to buy macaroni from the Western stall for recess instead so I hope that continues. It does mean he eats a much smaller lunch but I’m ok with that if he’s getting a fuller meal earlier in the day.
- Packing his schoolbag himself
My expectation was that he would check his timetable and pack his books everyday accordingly. You know, the way we did. This however has been slightly derailed by the fact that Noey leaves a lot of books in school in his locker or under his desk. So what he usually has in his bag is a file for papers, a workbook or two, some exercise books, colour pencils and his pencil case. Since there is no change to the contents on most days, he didn’t see the need to pack it, save to choose different books for silent reading everyday. Of course, he packs like a boy (read: no system at all, with books randomly arranged and papers stuffed in, sometimes without filing) so I still think it’s important arrange his things and confirm that he’s got everything he needs everyday. He doesn’t see the point of course, so yes, I’ve found myself arranging his things, sharpening his pencils and filing his papers. This KPI is a work in progress. - Doing his own homework without being asked
Ho ho ho. This one is a biggie which feels lightyears away from being accomplished! Right now, we are still trying to cross the “remember-to-bring-home-homework-that-needs-to-be-done” hurdle. Noey has left homework behind in school more than once and I’ve heard “Don’t worry Mummy, I can do it in the morning” a bit too often. He has a homework diary but he doesn’t always write everything down, only what his teacher makes him copy. So what goes into the homework diary is teacher-dependent. I only realised the extent of problem when I folded pages of undone Chinese writing when he did bring his books back recently. While I was initially feeling torn about asking him to bring all his books back everyday as that would result in a heavier schoolbag, but I’ve decided that that’s what we will do in Term 2. All workbooks and exercise books would come home everyday until I am satisfied that he can be trusted to bring the required books and worksheets home. Of course, when he does remember to bring his homework back it is still a struggle to get him to sit down to get started on his homework. I was (ok, still am) a procrastinator and this is bad bad karma. I realised that just imposing a time for homework on him doesn’t work so I pulled him aside and had a (fairly civilised) conversation about when homework time should be. I’m going to draw this up as a contract and make him sign it. Let’s hope it helps in Term 2! - Learn his spelling/听写 on his own
We are actually meeting this goal (hurray), though I’m aware that this is due in no small part to the fact that Noey can spell incredibly well and 听写 is mostly in hanyu pinyin. I get him to sit down, look through the words and test himself, writing down the answers in an exercise book for me to check. He’s not made any mistakes so we’re continuing with the system in Term 2. - Getting him to be responsible for his school admin and work AKA Minimising instances of bailing him out
Since my goal was help Noey to take charge of his school work and life, I thought it would be best if he was responsible from the outset for all matters relating to school. He would be responsible for conveying information from his teachers to me, and communicating with his teacher if he needed something. So for example, if he lost his spelling list, I wanted him to approach his teacher himself for a new one or ask one of his friends. This looked clear-cut on paper but not so much in practice. Especially when all his teachers are very on-the-ball and set up whatsapp groups to communicate with parents. Seriously, I have four (!!!) school chats going for Noey — one each for English/General, Math and Chinese, and the parents group. It’s great that the teachers keep the parents informed but not so great for devolving responsibility downwards to the kids. My current approach is to stay in the loop since it’s always good to know what’s going on and be aware of important messages. I don’t ask the teachers questions on the chat though. I get Noey to ask his teacher or classmates. Then again, I’ve also come to realise that my original approach was a bit hardline for a little boy who might be a bit afraid of speaking to his teachers. So while I want him to be the responsible party where his schoolwork is concerned, I’ve decided to be a bit more flexible and step in if the situation calls for it. Fortunately I haven’t really had to!
The term has passed by quickly but at least this time I’m not wondering where time has gone because I have felt every day! Hello Term 2. I can’t say we’re totally ready for you but let’s see what you bring!
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